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Economy Briefs

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - -
Monday, December 26, 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Stratfor hacking victims targeted after comments

NEW YORK — Victims of a data breach at the security analysis firm Stratfor apparently are being targeted a second time after speaking out about the hacking.

Stratfor said on its Facebook page that some individuals who offered public support for the company after it revealed it was hacked "may be being targeted for doing so."

The loose-knit hacking movement "Anonymous" claimed Sunday through Twitter that it had stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to the company's clients. Anonymous members posted links to some of the information Sunday and more on Monday.

Stratfor, based in Austin, Texas, said its affected clients and its supporters "are at risk of having sensitive information repeatedly published on other websites." The company has resorted to communicating through Facebook while its website remains down and its email suspended.

A message posted online Monday by a group asserting it spoke for Anonymous mocked victims who spoke to the Associated Press about the experience of learning that their credit card information was stolen and used to make unauthorized charitable donations. The message also ridiculed someone who criticized the hacking on Facebook, saying "we went ahead and ran up your card a bit."

The deal announced Nov. 30, for $150 million and the assumption of $50 million in debt, ended one of the newspaper industry's last sizable employee-ownership plans.

World-Herald spokesman Joel Long said Monday that the deal closed Friday. World-Herald shareholders — about 275 employees and retirees and the Peter Kiewit Foundation — approved the sale by an overwhelming vote, Mr. Long said. The amount employees received for each of their shares, which are not publicly traded, wasn't disclosed.

Under the agreement, Berkshire acquires the flagship World-Herald and daily newspapers in Kearney, Grand Island, York, North Platte and Scottsbluff in Nebraska; the Council Bluffs Nonpareil in Iowa; a number of weekly newspapers in the region; and World Marketing, a direct-mail company with operations in Omaha, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

The Omaha World-Herald Co. has about 1,600 employees, including about 650 at the flagship newspaper in Omaha. Its daily circulation is just over 135,000 and a Sunday circulation of a little over 170,000.

NEWSPAPERS

Investment group closes Chicago Sun-Times deal

CHICAGO — A new investment group has completed its purchase of the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times.

Wrapports LLC says its transaction to buy Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC closed Monday. In addition to the Chicago publication, Sun-Times Media also owns a chain of newspapers in the city's suburbs and in Indiana.

Sun-Times Media filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 and was led out of bankruptcy later that year by an investment group headed by Mesirow Financial President James Tyree. Tyree died this year.

While the newspaper has slashed costs and cut dozens of staff positions, the Sun-Times won a Pulitzer Prize this year for local reporting. Its new ownership group is led by technology investor Michael Ferro Jr. and Timothy Knight, the former publisher of the Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday.

AIRLINES

Southwest flight attendants reach deal with AirTran staff

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. flight attendants are the latest group of workers to agree on how they will integrate their seniority with that of workers at AirTran Airways.

The agreement, announced Monday, must be ratified by members of the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents roughly 10,000 Southwest flight attendants, and the Association of Flight Attendants Council 57, which represents about 2,400 at AirTran, the airline and the unions said.